"In my second year as a Graduate Engineer based in the Melbourne office, I was lucky enough to be sent to Houston for three months to experience the Houston office.

My time at AMOG was spent in the Marine and Structures department with the Structures team. My main project for the vacation program was to develop the in-house post-processing FE software package known as SIAFEM. My task was to implement an ANSI360 code checker to function alongside the existing AS4100 code checker. My secondary project was to assist in analysing the data from AMOG's wave energy converter. I was also given a variety of smaller jobs to assist the engineers with their various tasks.

"At AMOG I was able to bolster my engineering skills on an industry project under the supervision of other experienced engineers. In comparison to other vacation placements I’m aware of, the position allowed more involvement in design/analysis/testing.

"I was studying Civil Engineering at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s, Canada. As part of my Bachelor of Engineering (Co-operative) Degree. I sought out a work placement at AMOG’s Head Office in Melbourne as I had heard of their impressive reputation for diverse, challenging projects as well as technical excellence.

"From an early age I was fortunate enough to realise that I wanted to be an engineer. AMOG provided me with 12 weeks of experience working as a vacation student amongst the professional engineers.

"I completed my vacation work at AMOG following my penultimate year at Monash University, where I studied a Bachelor of Mechatronics Engineering and Commerce. I worked for three months over the summer break in the Marine and Infrastructure Group, where I studied the characteristics of squalls (which are extreme transient wind events) and their effect on floating structures such as FPSOs (FloatingProduction, Storage and Offload vessels).

I was a vacation student at AMOG during the summer of 2019-2020. I worked within the safety department on a variety of safety and marine-related projects. One of the biggest projects I helped work on was updating the Shear7 Vortex Induced Vibration (VIV) prediction tool, in which I helped validate calculations for the addition of a new calculation for stick-slip hysteresis. I also performed sensitivity analyses on various functions on SHEAR7. These tasks required me to use programming languages such as Julia and Fortran.

"I began a Bachelor of Engineering at Monash University in 2011, choosing to major in Mechanical Engineering. As a student, the idea of moving into a workplace is very daunting. University teaches you a great deal but it doesn’t fully prepare you for getting a job in the engineering industry.

"Experience within the industry provides invaluable benefits during engineering study and when seeking gainful employment. 

In the beginning I was daunted by the substantial technical jump between the work undertaken by AMOG and my tertiary studies. However the feeling soon turned to excitement as this was an opportunity for me to acquire new knowledge and to challenge myself. My colleagues and supervisors were very supportive and they made the transition to everyday work easy. Their high-level knowledge from years of experience allowed me to excel in my project. It was incredibly rewarding to be able to apply the techniques learnt at university to real-world problems and achieve results.

"In 2015 while searching for vacation placement opportunities I came across AMOG’s company website. Very interested in the engineering work they are involved with, I submitted my CV. Now one year later, I have carried out placements in both their Houston and Melbourne offices.

"AMOG provided me with the opportunity to apply a multitude of skills from my degree through the challenging work, as well as consistent support from the senior staff who were always willing to help.